New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Monday issued notice to the Centre and nine naxal-affected states on a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) seeking direction to governments to formulate a central policy for handling the naxal danger.

The court had passed the order on a plea filed by ex-MLA of Samajwadi Party (SP), saying a central regulation is needed to handle naxalite activities, which is causing a serious threat to the security to the country.

The petition said that the absence of any central regulation over the Naxalites or Maoists have helped increase their strength to spread terror and to disturb national integrity and peace.

The petition said that despite conceptualization of the Integrated Action Plan for dealing with naxal issues there is a strong divergence between the Ministry of Rural Development (MoRD) and Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) over its implementation and it needed to be sorted out.